Valved jet device for well drills

ABSTRACT

Valve members that are relatively rotatable through only a limited amount constitute a lost motion rotary drive connection between a drill string and a drill head. When the drill string is driving the drill head in one direction the valve members are open to provide free flow of drilling mud to the drill head but when the drill string is rotated in the other direction a small amount relative to the drill head, the valve members assume a closed position to substantially prevent flow of mud to the drill head, the mud being directed to jets in a drill collar and/or stabilizing collar to loosen sand or other material in the well that may have caused the drill to become stuck.

United States Patent 1191 Schoeffler Apr. 16, 1974 VALVED JET DEVICE FOR WELL DRILLS Primary Examiner-James A. Leppink [76] Inventor: William N. Schoeffler, Rt. 1, Box

I 389, Carencro, La. [57] ABSTRACT [22] Flled: 1973 Valve members that are relatively rotatable through [21] Appl. N0.: 353,095 only a limited amount constitute a lost motion rotary drive connection between a drill string and a drill [52] U S Cl 175/317 137/625 31 166/226 head. When the drill string is driving the drill head in [51] 41/00 one direction the valve members are open to provide 58] Fieid 137/609 free flow of drilling mud to the drill head but when the 137/625 56 47 5 625 625 drill string is rotated in the other direction a small amount relative to the drill head, the valve members assume a closed position to substantially preventflow [56] References Cited of mud to the drill head, the mud being directed to jets in a drill collar and/or stabilizing collar to loosen 2 270 U/NITED STATES PATENTS sand or other material in the well that may have l l942 Lee caused the to b me tuck 3,025,919 3/l962 Angel et al. 166/226 ec 3,369,619 2/1968 Brown 175 317 8 Clams, 7 Drawing Flgures 3,581,820 6/l97l Burns 166/226 ATENTEDAPR 16 1974 SHEEI 2 [IF 2' BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention is in the field of well drilling apparatus and relates particularly to devices for freeing stuck drill bits or drill strings in a bore hole.

It frequently occurs, in drilling oil wells, for example, that sand or other material from the walls of the well being drilled fall into the well and bind the drill pipe and/or bit preventing its further rotation or withdrawal. Rotary drills are customarily caused to rotate by the rotation of a string of drill pipe to which the bit is attached and which extends to the surface. The drill pipe is made up of sections threadedly joined together and, thus, it is impractical or impossible to free a stuck drill by rotating the drill string in reverse since such rotation would merely unscrew and disconnect sections of the drill pipe and render retrieval of the disconnected bit extremely difficult.

It has been proposed previously to effect release of such stuck drills by directing jets of drilling mud to the material causing the difficulty, to loosen the same. However, such previous proposals involved complicated and/or very expensive apparatus.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is customary in the drilling of oil wells to pump drilling mud down through the drill pipe to the bit to dislodge and remove cuttings from the bottom of the hole.

That drilling mud and the cuttings then flow upwardly in the well bore outside the drill pipe to the surface of the ground. The present invention relates to a simple -valve structure in the flow path for drilling mud to the drill bit. The valve is normally open when the drill string is being rotated in the normal drilling direction to thus permit free flow of the drilling mud to the drill bit. However, in the event the drill becomes stuck in the manner referred to, the drill string is merely rotated in a reverse direction about one-quarter of a turn which substantially closes the flow path for drilling mud to the bit and opens passageways to laterally directed jet nozzles whereupon the pressurized drilling mud exits through those nozzles and loosens the sand or other material that caused the drill string to become stuck. The valve does not completely close the passageway referred to but permitssome pressurized flow to the drill bit so that the loosened material can be washed to the surface by the drilling mud issuing from the bit.

It is, therefore, the principal object of this invention to provide a simple mechanism, responsive to a small reverse rotation of the drill string to direct jets of fluid to bind-ing material to loosen the same.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS but with the passages to the jet valves blocked;

FIG. 5 is a horizontal sectional view, similar to FIG.

4, showing the valve closed and the passages to the jet valves in register;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary vertical sectional view through one of the jet nozzles taken on the line 66 of FIG. 2; and I FIG. 7 is a perspective view of one of the valve inserts.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown therein a fragmentary portion of a wall bore 2 being drilled by a conventional rotary bit 4. The bit 4 is caused to rotate by means, not shown, at the surface of the ground,"

which imparts rotation to the string of drill pipe 6 comprising individual sections threadedly joined together by suitable coupling means 8. The drill head '4 is attached to the drill string 6 by a drill collar and valve'device 10 constituting the present invention and to be described in greater detail hereinafter. As is customary, one or more of the couplings betweeen sections of drill pipe is provided with outwardly extending lugs or ribs 12, the outer ends of which are of substantially the same diameter as the bore hole 2 and they function as stabilizers to hold the drill string and the drill head 4 centrally located within a bore hole 2.

Referring now to FIG. 2, the drill head 4 is threadedly mounted on a drill collar 14 having a bore 16 therethrough communicating with a bore 18 in the drill head 4. The collar member 14 is threadedly engaged with a valve seat member 20 having a central bore 22 therethrough aligned with the bores 16 and 18. A valve housing member 24 is in the form of a hollow tubular structure threadedly engaged with the valve seat member 20, as at 26. The valve housing member 24 is provided with an enlarged bore 28 within which a generally cylindrical valve head member 30 is located. The valve head member 30 slidably engages the upper surface of the valve seat member 20 and is provided with an upwardly facing shoulder 32 slidably bearing against a downwardly facing shoulder 34 formed on the valve housing 24. This feature permits relative rotation between 24 and 30 but prevents relative axial movement therebetween. The valve housing 24isprovided with a further bore 36 somewhat smaller than the bore 28 and in which a valve stem member 38 is located. The valve stem member 38 is preferably integral with valve head 30 and extends upwardly through the valve housing 24 and is threadedly connected to the lowermost section of drill pipe 6, as shown. The valve stem 38 and valve head 30 are provided with a central bore 40 aligned with the bore 22 and with the interior of the drill pipe 6. Thus, the bores 40, 22, 16 and 18 provide a flow path for drilling mud from the drill pipe 6 to the drill head 4 from which it is discharged in a known and conventional manner during ordinary drilling operations.

As is apparent from FIG. 3, the valve stem 38 is provided with outwardly extending longitudinal ribs or projections 42 within the bore 36. The interior of the valve housing 24 is provided with inwardly directed and longitudinally extending ribs 44 between the ribs 42 on the valve stem. As is evident from the drawing, the dimensions and spacing of the ribs 42 and 44 is such that when the valve stem 38 is rotated in a clockwise direction, as seen in FIG. 3,v its ribs 42 engage shoulders defined by the sides of the ribs 44 of valve housing 24 and forcibly rotate the same in that same direction. Thus, the drill head 4 iscaused to rotate for drilling purposes. However, it is also apparent that the drill string, valve stem 38 and valve head 30 may be rotated counterclockwise through an angle slightly less than 90 without load and without rotating the drill head. Thus, the drill head is connected to the drill string through a lost motion drive connection. Obviously, the drill string and valve stem can be reversely rotated as described without imposing a load on the threaded connections between sections of drill pipe and their coupling members 8 and there is no danger of thus disconnecting the drill string.

The upper surface of the valve seat member is provided with a recess 46 in which a generally semicircular disc valve member 48 is positioned. FIG. 7 illustrates the shape of the disc member 48 in greater detail and it is seated in the recess 46 with its upper surface flush with the upper surface of the valve seat member 20. The valve head member is provided with a recess in which a valve disc element 52 is seated. The valve disc element 42 may be identical to the member 48. The recesses 46 and 50 are not completely circular but are of a shape complementary to the respective valve discs 48 and 52 so that the latter are held in fixed orientation about the axis of the valve head member 30 and valve seat member 20, respectively. They are so oriented that, during drilling operations with the drill string rotating in a clockwise direction (as viewed from the top),-the valve disc members assume the relative position shown in FIG. 4. It is to be noted that in this position the valve discs do not completely close the passageway defined by bores 22 and 40 but leave a sector-shaped opening 54 and each disc is provided with a central notch 56 to further define an open flow path for drilling mud. Thus, during drilling operations the mud can flow freely to the drill head.

The valve head 30 is provided with a plurality of ob lique passageways 58 extending from a position above the valve discs 48and 52 to the lower surface of the valve head 30 outwardly of the passageway 40. That is, the passageways 58 extend through the interface between valve head 30 and valve seat 20. The valve seat member 20 is provided with a plurality of longitudinal passageways 60 extending from that interface downwardly therethrough and outwardly of the passageway 22 and equal in number and spacing to the lower ends of the oblique passageways 58. However, as is evident from FIG. 4, during normal drilling operations, the passageways 60 and the lower ends of passageways 58 are not in alignment and thus there is no flow path for drilling mud from passageways 58 to passageways 60. However, when the valve stem 38 is rotated in the reverse direction, as previously described, the parts assume the relative positions shown in F IG. 5 wherein the sector-shaped opening 54 is closed by valve discs 48 and 50, leaving only a small central opening 62 defined by the notches 56. At the same time the lower ends of oblique passageways 58 move into alignment with the passageways 60 to provide a flow path for drilling mud from bore 40 through passageways 60.

As seen in FIG. 2, the passageways 60 open at their lower end into an annular chamber 64 formed in the upper surface of drill collar 14 and a plurality of passageways 66 extend from the annular chamber 64 to a lower annular chamber 68 at the lower end of drill collar 14. Thus, upon reverse rotation of the drill string as 4 described flow of drilling mud to the drill head is substantially cut off (but not completely) and drilling mud is caused to flow through passageways 58 and 60 into chamber 64, passageways 66 and chamber 68. It is to be noted that the outer peripheries of chambers 64'and 68 are open to the exterior of the drilling apparatus.

The drill collar 14 is provided with a multiplicity of jet nozzles 70 threadedly mounted in bores 72 in the wall of the collar member, which nozzles 70 communicate with the passageways 66. FIG. 6 illustrates the structure of the nozzles 70 in greater detail. Each nozzle includes a passageway 74 communicating with passageway 66 and terminating in a seat 76 receiving a ball valve 78. The ball valve 78 is housed in a chamber 80 and is pressed toward seat 76 by a spring 82 reacting against plug 86. A jet nozzle opening 84 communicates with the chamber 80. During normal drilling operations there is substantially no drilling mud pressurein the passageway 66 and thus spring 82 holds ball 78 on its seat 76 and prevents inward flow of pressurized drilling mud from the well bore into the passageways 66.

In the event the drill becomes stuck by sand pilingup around the same, a slight reverse rotation of the drill string will function in the manner described to direct pressurized drilling mud through passageways 58, 60 and 66 to the jet nozzles. Under these conditions the pressure inside passageways 66 is greater than that out side the drill string and this causes ball valve 78 to open permitting pressurized flow of drilling mud through nozzle openings 88 at high velocities, sufficient to dislodge sand or other material piled up around the drill head. At the same time pressurized mud is caused to jet through the openings at the exterior sides of chambers 64 and 68 and produce further sand-loosening jets. The opening 62, as shown in FIG. 5, is sufficiently small to cause a build up of back pressure in drilling mud on the upstream side thereof but still permits sufficient flow of drilling mud through the drill head to effectively wash loosened sand upwardly in the bore hole and thus release the drill head.

Mention was previously made of the stabilizer collar having the ribs'12 thereon. Preferably, such stabilizing collars are also provided with a plurality of jet nozzles therein which may be identical in structure to the jet nozzles shown in FIG. 6. Suitable passageways are provided to communicate bores 74 in the jet nozzles with the interior of the drill pipe. During normal drilling operations the ball valves 78 in the stabilizer collar remain closed but upon obstruction of drilling mud flow by valve discs 48 and 52 sufficient back pressure is built up in the stabilizer collar to cause its jet valves to open and direct jets of drilling mud outwardly to loosen sand or other material that may cause binding between the stabilizer collar and the well bore.

While applicant has described only a single specific embodiment of the invention, the same is merely illustrative of the principles involved and other forms may be resorted to within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim: 1. In well drilling apparatus having a string of rotatable drill pipe, a drill head arranged to be rotated I thereby and means forforcing drilling mud downwardly through said drill pipe and said drilling head, the improvement comprising:

a driving member fixed to the lower end of said drill a driven member fixed to said drill head;

a lost motion driving connection between said driving and driven members whereby rotation of said drill pipe and said driving member in one direction positively drives said driven member in said direction while permitting limited rotation of said driving member relative to said driven member in the other direction;

cooperating valve members on said driving .and driven members for controlling flow of drilling mud to said drill head, said valve members being in open position permitting free flow of drilling mud to said drill head when said driving member is rotating in said one direction but being closed and substantially stopping said flow when said driving member is rotated said limited amount in said other direction; and

means responsive to said rotation in said other direction for directing drilling mud from said drill pipe to at least one nozzle arranged to direct a jet of mud into the hole being drilled, adjacent said drill head.

2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including a stabilizer collar on said drill pipe, spaced above said driving member;

at least one nozzle on said stabilizer collar directed outwardly therefrom;

a passageway providing communication between the interior of said drill pipe and said nozzle; and

yieldable valve means normally closing said passageway during normal drilling operations when said cooperating valve means are in open position and responsive to pressure in said drill pipe, when said cooperating valve means are in closed position, to open and permit drilling mud to jet out said nozzle.

3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said driving member comprises a tubular member defining an extension of said drill pipe and having at least one projection extending outwardly therefrom; said driven member having a tubular portion surrounding said driving member and having spaced shoulders on circumferentially opposite sides of said projection whereby said lost motion is provided by movement of said projection ior of said tubular driving member extending through said interface and being aligned with a first passageway from said interface through said driven member tosaid drill head; said cooperating valve means comprising generally semicircular plates on said driving and driven members, respectively, at said interface.

6. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including means preventing relative axial movement between said driving and driven members.

7. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including abutting axially directed surfaces on said driving and driven members defining an interface therebetween; said driving member being a tubular member with its interior extending through said interface and being aligned with a first passageway from said interface through said driven member to said drill head; said cooperating valve means being at said interface;

a further passageway, laterally spaced from said first passageway, from said interface to'said nozzle; and

a further passageway in said driving member extending from the interior thereof above said interface to said interface into communication with saidfirst passageway only when said cooperating valve members are in closed position.

8 A device for use with well drilling apparatus, comprising:

a driving member having means for securing the same to the lower end of a drill pipe;

a driven member having means for securing the same to a drill head;

a-lost motion driving connection between said driving and driven members whereby rotation of said driving member in one direction positively drives said driven member in said direction while permitting limited rotation of said driving member relative to said driven member in the other direction;

axially aligned passageways through said driving and driven members;

cooperating valve members on said driving and driven members for controlling flow of drilling mud through said passageways, said valve members being in open position permitting free flow of fluid .through said passageways when said driving member is rotating in said one direction but being closed and substantially stopping said flow when said driving member is rotated said limited amount in said other direction; and

means responsive to said rotation in said other direction for directing fluid flow from the interior of said driving member to at least one nozzle arranged to direct a jet of fluid laterally outwardly from said driven member, 

1. In well drilling apparatus having a string of rotatable drill pipe, a drill head arranged to be rotated thereby and means for forcing drilling mud downwardly through said drill pipe and said drilling head, the improvement comprising: a driving member fixed to the lower end of said drill pipe; a driven member fixed to said drill head; a lost motion driving connection between said driving and driven members whereby rotation of said drill pipe and said driving member in one direction positively drives said driven member in said direction while permitting limited rotation of said driving member relative to said driven member in the other direction; cooperating valve members on said driving and driven members for controlling flow of drilling mud to said drill head, said valve members being in open position permitting free flow of drilling mud to said drill head when said driving member is rotating in said one direction but being closed and substantially stopping said flow when said driving member is rotated said limited amount in said other direction; and means responsive to said rotation in said other direction for directing drilling mud from said drill pipe to at least one nozzle arranged to direct a jet of mud into the hole being drilled, adjacent said drill head.
 2. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including a stabilizer collar on said drill pipe, spaced above said driving member; at least one nozzle on said stabilizer collar directed outwardly therefrom; a passageway providing communication between the interiOr of said drill pipe and said nozzle; and yieldable valve means normally closing said passageway during normal drilling operations when said cooperating valve means are in open position and responsive to pressure in said drill pipe, when said cooperating valve means are in closed position, to open and permit drilling mud to jet out said nozzle.
 3. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 wherein said driving member comprises a tubular member defining an extension of said drill pipe and having at least one projection extending outwardly therefrom; said driven member having a tubular portion surrounding said driving member and having spaced shoulders on circumferentially opposite sides of said projection whereby said lost motion is provided by movement of said projection between said shoulders.
 4. Apparatus as defined in claim 3 wherein said projection is one of a plurality of circumferentially spaced longitudinal ribs on said driving member, said shoulders being side faces of circumferentially spaced longitudinal ribs in said tubular portion of said driven member.
 5. Apparatus as defined in claim 3 including abutting axially directed surfaces on said driving and driven members defining an interface therebetween; the interior of said tubular driving member extending through said interface and being aligned with a first passageway from said interface through said driven member to said drill head; said cooperating valve means comprising generally semicircular plates on said driving and driven members, respectively, at said interface.
 6. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including means preventing relative axial movement between said driving and driven members.
 7. Apparatus as defined in claim 1 including abutting axially directed surfaces on said driving and driven members defining an interface therebetween; said driving member being a tubular member with its interior extending through said interface and being aligned with a first passageway from said interface through said driven member to said drill head; said cooperating valve means being at said interface; a further passageway, laterally spaced from said first passageway, from said interface to said nozzle; and a further passageway in said driving member extending from the interior thereof above said interface to said interface into communication with said first passageway only when said cooperating valve members are in closed position.
 8. A device for use with well drilling apparatus, comprising: a driving member having means for securing the same to the lower end of a drill pipe; a driven member having means for securing the same to a drill head; a lost motion driving connection between said driving and driven members whereby rotation of said driving member in one direction positively drives said driven member in said direction while permitting limited rotation of said driving member relative to said driven member in the other direction; axially aligned passageways through said driving and driven members; cooperating valve members on said driving and driven members for controlling flow of drilling mud through said passageways, said valve members being in open position permitting free flow of fluid through said passageways when said driving member is rotating in said one direction but being closed and substantially stopping said flow when said driving member is rotated said limited amount in said other direction; and means responsive to said rotation in said other direction for directing fluid flow from the interior of said driving member to at least one nozzle arranged to direct a jet of fluid laterally outwardly from said driven member. 